'Super-O-Rama' for Obama

Strapped for cash and facing a tidal wave of big-money Republican attack ads, Democratic super PACs are putting an unlikely plan in motion: the Super-O-Rama.

The kitschy name is for a massive fundraising push at the national convention in Charlotte, where Democrats aim to woo elusive big donors with parties featuring live music, open bars and mingling with “senior Democratic policy leaders,” according to a fundraising appeal.

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Democrats hope the events will lead to a massive cash infusion for three super PACs that have struggled to pull in the big checks necessary to compete with GOP outside advertising juggernauts like the Karl Rove-conceived Crossroads outfits and the Koch brothers-linked Americans for Prosperity.

But the plan isn’t perfect. The Democratic National Convention is just two months before the general election — too late to spend any money raised there on ads, some Democrats worry. Plus, conventions do not typically lend themselves to the type of one-on-one meetings where mega donors usually sign six- and seven-figure checks.

The Super-O-Rama plan is just one example of a larger overhaul afoot among Democratic super PACs, which have gotten a cool reception from some of the party’s biggest traditional donors.

Democrats have also set up threejoint fundraisingcommittees, hired several new big-money fundraisers, replaced a top executive and tapped supporters to make pitches to a club of of wealthy liberal donors last weekend at a Miami hotel, which was attended by a top White House official. And the super PAC backing Democratic Senate candidates – Majority PAC – recently dispatched Sens. Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin on an extraordinary cross-country fundraising scramble featuring solicitations in New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Washington and Dallas, Democratic sources told POLITICO.

Representatives of Majority PAC and the other super PACs involved in Super-O-Rama — the House-focused House Majority PAC and the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action — either declined to comment on their recent fundraising pushes or argued that everything was going according to design.

“We made a plan last year to be ready to aggressively engage in the election season this spring,” said Bill Burton, a former aide to President Barack Obama who co-founded Priorities USA, which this week launched a $4 million ad campaign attacking Obama’s Republican rival Mitt Romney. “We built a communications and a fundraising capacity to do that and we’ve added to it as appropriate.” While he stressed that Super-O-Rama is “still in the planning stages — the only thing that has been decided is the name,” he said it’s long been part of the plan “to have events to raise money where Democrats are gathered.”

And the convention, set for the week of Sept. 3 in Charlotte, N.C, is the granddaddy of Democratic gatherings.

It offers the Democratic super PACs, which are new this election cycle and have gotten a cold shoulder from many of the party’s big donors, a prime setting for “donor cultivation,” said Andy Stone, a spokesman for House Majority PAC. It’s a “great opportunity to communicate to our supporters the critical need to be competitive on the airwaves,” he said.

The Super-O-Rama is something of a departure for the super PACs, which have primarily focused on small fundraising gatherings.